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Sultan Hurre Remembrance Day
(SHHRF 0054/2005, 17 August 2005)
(English version)
17 August 2005 is the third anniversary of the killing of Sultan Ahmed
Mohamed Hurre, who symbolises for all the Somalis killed for political
reasons. The respected/educated Sultan was killed point blank at Kalabayr of
Puntland on August 17, 2002 by the bodyguards of Col. Abdullahi Ahmed Yusuf,
the current leader of the so-called transitional federal government of
Somalia. The Colonel admitted that his bodyguards killed the Sultan while he
was the disputed President of the Puntland State of Somalia. Col.
Yusuf did this admission in submission he made to the High Court of Justice
in London, even though he had denied his knowledge of the death of the
respected sultan. The fact remains that Col. Yusuf was in a stone’s throw
when the Sultan was gunned down under his supervision.
Similar political assassinations have also taken place in Puntland and
elsewhere in Somalia. Colonel Farah Mohamed Said (Farah Dheere), a respected
businessman was gunned down by no one but the same bodyguards of the
Colonel. It is also remembered that the special bodyguards of Col. Yusuf
were implicated in the broad-day-light killing of Abdirahman Aidid, a well
known Somali politician, in 1984 in Dire Dawa. Aidid was the Colonel’s
political rival at the time while Col. Yusuf was the Chairman of Somali
Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF).
Despite the dismal record of the Colonel, it was deplorable to see that
the appointed Somali members of parliament elected Col. Yusuf as the
“President” of transitional set-up in Somalia.
As SHHRF had predicted, Somalia is moving towards another cycle of
killings and civil war similar to that of the 1990s when armed opposition
officers attempted to solve political problems with brute force. It is
unfortunate that the fate of many innocent Somalis is written in the wall as
Col. Yusuf is gearing up for a war to be waged against his political
adversaries in the south of Somalia.
SHHRF is condemning the use of political violence in settling political
differences. We remind the Somali people and the international community
that the leader of Somalia’s fledgling interim set-up had eliminated his
political adversaries and has no qualms in doing it again and again.
We urge all Somalis, the international community as well as the human
rights agencies in Somalia and worldwide to take to task Somalia’s new
dictator and his sponsors. No more killings of Somalis, let alone its
intellectual leaders.
Sultan Hurre Human Rights Focus (SHHRF) |
